Thursday, January 14, 2016

Paging Lawyers: Is there call for panic in this bill?

“(d) Minimum term of imprisonment for certain acts relating to the
provision of controlled goods or services to terrorists or proliferators
of weapons of mass destruction.—

“(1) IN GENERAL.—A person who willfully commits, willfully attempts to
commit, or willfully conspires to commit, solicits the commission of, or
aids or abets in the commission of, an unlawful act described in
paragraph (2) shall, upon conviction, be imprisoned for a term of not
less than 5 years. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a court
shall not place on probation any person sentenced under this subsection.

“(2) UNLAWFUL ACTS DESCRIBED.—An unlawful act described in this
paragraph is an unlawful act described in subsection (a) that involves—

“(A) the provision of controlled goods or services to or for the use of—

“(i) a state sponsor of terrorism;

“(ii) an organization designated as a foreign terrorist organization
under section 219(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C.
1189(a)); or

“(iii) a person on the list of specially designated nationals and
blocked persons maintained by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of
the Department of the Treasury;

“(B) the provision of goods or services, without a license or other
written approval of the United States Government, to any person in
connection with a program or effort of a foreign country or foreign
person to develop weapons of mass destruction; or

“(C) the provision of defense articles or defense services, without a
license or other written approval of the Department of State, to, or for
the use of, a country subject to an arms embargo by the United States.

“(3) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection:

“(A) CONTROLLED GOODS OR SERVICES.—The term ‘controlled goods or
services’ means any article, item, technical data, service, or
technology listed or included in—

“(i) the United States Munitions List maintained pursuant to part 121 of title 22, Code of Federal Regulations;

“(ii) the Commerce Control List maintained pursuant to part 774 of title 15, Code of Federal Regulations; or

“(iii) any successor to the United States Munitions List or the Commerce Control List.

“(B) COUNTRY SUBJECT TO AN ARMS EMBARGO.—The term ‘country subject to an
arms embargo’ means any foreign country listed in section 126.1 of
title 22, Code of Federal Regulations (or any corresponding similar
regulation or ruling), for which—

“(i) an embargo or prohibition exists on the export of defense articles or defense services; or

“(ii) the policy of the United States is to deny licenses and other
approvals for the export of defense articles and defense services.

“(C) DEFENSE ARTICLE; DEFENSE SERVICE.—The terms ‘defense article’ and
‘defense service’ have the meanings given those terms in section 47 of
the Arms Export Control Act (22 U.S.C. 2794).

“(D) STATE SPONSOR OF TERRORISM.—The term ‘state sponsor of terrorism’
means any foreign country, or political subdivision, agency, or
instrumentality of a foreign country, if the Secretary of State has
determined that the government of the country has repeatedly provided
support for acts of international terrorism pursuant to—

GOA has it
that this means anybody who puts a drawing of a gun online could be
locked up by the secret Muslim Communist Atheist in the White House. I
realize that GOA's job is to cry "WOLF!", but is there really a wolf
here? As someone who writes about guns on the internet, sometimes even for money, how
many letters should I be sending my senators?

See the Facebook discussion thread or, if you prefer antisocial media, email link is in the sidebar.